Meeting
by OhJay
Summary: Partner fic. Ed and Allen both have missions to go on, and end up meeting for the first time at the train station. After talking for a little whilec, they decide to see who's more skilled in a sparing match...Oneshot implied EdxWinry and AllenxLenalee


_**Meeting**_

Allen Walker waited for the train to arrive in the station of a small town somewhere in Europe. Where exactly in Europe, however, he wasn't sure. It wasn't on the map he'd been given. His current mission was rather ridiculous; Komui wanted to try some special coffee only found in Turkey, and instead of waiting for Lenalee to order it for the next shipment of supplies, he had sent Allen to get it.

"Nothing like a madman run by coffee to start the day..." Allen sighed.

* * *

><p>Ed groaned as he loudly set down his brown suit case and plopped down on a wooden bench outside the train station. He stuffed his gloved hands into his pockets, glaring down at the blue, itchy, stiff Amestrain military uniform that he so desperately hated. Mustang had told him it was required for this mission, no matter how much he complained about it. To make things worse, Al wasn't allowed to come with him. All he could do was sit and wait for his train to arrive, which to his bad luck was going to be late.<p>

He sighed as he slouched down on the bench. Already he was starting to get fidgety from his boredom, and it had been what, two minutes? Hearing a rather strange comment about a madmen and coffee by the person sitting close by him he raised an eyebrow, then couldn't help chuckling. Apparently he wasn't the only one having a crappy day.

* * *

><p>Allen glanced around when he heard a chuckle from nearby. The closest person was a blonde man clad in a blue military uniform. He seemed amused by something, but he tried not to pay him much mind. Timcampy fluttered down and landed on Allen's shoulder, flapping his wings in a sort of greeting. Allen smiled.<p>

"Hey, Tim. What are you doing here? I thought you were with master."

The little golem briefly played a message from his master, who apparently wanted him to (somehow) pick up some wine for him on the way. Allen sighed and left a message for his master before Timcampy fluttered off, heading back to the order.

"This day just keeps getting better and better," Allen grumbled. "Where's the train, anyway? It was supposed to be here five minutes ago," he said to no one in particular.

* * *

><p>Ed sighed again as he stared at his silver state issued watch and started watching the seconds tick by. Somehow it made time seem go even slower. Hearing what the boy said, he closed his watch.<p>

"I heard it's running behind," he told him. "Gonna be at least an hour."

There was a short silence.

"I'm Ed, by the way," he said, deciding it wouldn't hurt to try and talk to him. "Edward Elric."

Allen sighed and hung his head. He had several hours to sit on the train as it was, let alone having to wait for it. He had a feeling the hammer would be brought down on him by his master if he were to be late getting back. His head snapped back up when Ed introduced himself. Allen figured a little harmless chat never hurt anyone, and at least it would help pass the time.

"I'm Allen Walker, nice to meet you."

Ed smiled as he shook his hand, frowning slightly when he noticed Allen was a few inches taller than him, and mentally cursed the world for being so short. He also wondered about his white hair, and whether or not it was the way it was through natural means. What appeared to be a red tattoo under his left eye with a star above it also interested him, but he was also curious about his choice of clothing.

"Are you a soldier, too?" he asked, noticing that it was most likely some sort of uniform.

Allen gave a sheepish grin.

"Sort of. I guess that's one way to look at it, anyway." Allen glanced over Ed's uniform briefly. "And what about you?"

Ed nodded, then pulled out his watch to show him.

"I'm a State Alchemist, a Major to be more specific in terms of rank" he explained. "Colonel Bastard sent me out here on another crappy 'you're doing the boring work for me' kind of mission."

"What about you?" he asked. "Your boss send you out in the middle of nowhere for something stupid, too?"

Allen sighed and slumped down on the bench a little.

"Yeah, both of them. The mad scientist sent me on a mission to get coffee in Turkey of all places, and my master wants me to pick up wine on the way. It feels more like a pointless 'errand' rather than a mission."

"So you're an alchemist?" he asked.

"Yep," Ed said with a smile, sitting down beside him. "Started learning it when I was five, joined the state at twelve," he said, skipping the fact that he had pretty much gone through hell along the way. "My little brother is too, but he couldn't come with me," he explained.

He slid his watch back into his pocket, but in the process his glove slid off partly revealing part of his automail without him realizing it.

"Wow. I surprised they'd let someone join the military at twelve years old," Allen commented. "Any reason your brother couldn't..." Allen started to ask about Ed's brother and the glint of metal caught his eye. His curiosity was peaked to say the least.

"Well someone had to pull a few strings for me," Ed explained, "And Al, well he's a got a...medical condition."

He decided that was the best way to put it instead of trying to explain that a seven foot tall suit of armor would stand out. It was only when he was done talking when he realized Allen had drifted off,  
>and he followed his gaze to his right hand.<p>

"Oh..." he said, realizing that his automail had been showing a bit. Seeing that there wasn't much reason to hide it now, he removed his glove and pulled up his sleeve so he could see it better.

"Childhood accident," he half lied with ease. "Left leg's the same way."

Allen subconsciously clenched his left hand. He couldn't imagine losing limbs at a young age.

"I imagine these were hard to get used to."

"Yeah," Ed admitted, remembering the painful surgery and rehab time. "They're connected to all of my nerves. The average recovery time is three years, but I pulled it off in one," he explained. "My girlfriend Winry made 'em. She's as skilled as a mechanic as I am an alchemist."

Of course he purposely skipped over the fact that she gave him a concussion every time he broke it, even if they were dating.

"So you've got full control of them then. That's cool!" Allen smiled. "She sounds really nice. Must be hard on you both to be so far apart sometimes, though."

Allen could tell he was a big traveler just looking at him. Took one to know one, really. So it couldn't have been easy on the two of them. Hell, Allen just wished he had enough courage to ask a certain girl out; it was hard to do so when her brother was always coming up with ways to keep any man away from her, no matter his intentions.

"Yeah," he said as he flexed his fingers so he could see. He nodded in agreement, realizing that he actually hadn't seen her in months.

"Now that you mention it, I haven't been home in a while..." It was hard to go back though, especially since Winry and Pinako were the only ones waiting for him.

"What about you?" Ed asked. "Got any family?"

Allen smiled sadly.

"In a way, yeah. I was orphaned when I was little so I've never known my parents. But, where I live now, I have so many friends that they're kind of like a family to me."

Allen took off the glove on his left hand and rolled up his sleeve a little to show him. To someone like me who has no idea who Allen is, he's just got a regular arm. I would put in some description to explain what's wrong with him.

"See, my parents abandoned me because of my arm. At least, that's the only reason I can think of for their leaving anyway."

"I see..." Ed said sympathetically, glancing at his arm, but trying not to stare. _Why would they do such a thing? He was still their child no matter what, but apparently they hadn't seen that..._ "I know how you feel," he told him. "My mom died in a plague when I was four, and my dad walked out on us a year before, haven't seen him since. Bastard didn't even come back for her funeral."

He clenched his fist in anger, but moments later it faded. He sighed as he flipped open his watch to see that they still had some time left.

"Sorry to hear that..." Allen said sympathetically.

Allen hadn't even mentioned Mana, but there was only so much he could go into explaining to someone he'd only just met. He glanced away briefly to see if the train was in sight, only to see nothing.

"You said you're some kind of soldier, right? Feel like sparing a bit?"

When Edward mentioned sparring, he smiled slightly.

"And here I thought you were just a scientist."

Ed grinned. "'To train the mind you have to train the body'. That's what my teacher always said."

He looked around the landscape, and saw a small empty barren field that was only a few yards away.

"That place should work," he said as he stood up and began walking over.

He took off his trademark red trench coat and military jacket so he wouldn't get too sweaty, but he kept his black muscle shirt on. This of course revealed his full automail arm as well as the scars from the surgery, and how muscular he was.

"Wanna set any rules?" he asked as he began to stretch.

Allen followed him and took off his own jacket, revealing his left arm in full.

"Well how much time we got, first off?"

He stretched a little while they discussed the terms.

"About a half hour," he told him, checking his watch again to be sure. There was plenty of time.

"Ya'know, just because we just met doesn't mean I'm gonna go easy on you," he warned as he finished stretching and oiled his automail so it wouldn't have any problems.

Allen grinned. "Oh, no worries then." He got into a fighting stance. "I won't have to go easy on you either."

Ed couldn't help smirking as he got into his own fighting stance. Then, without any further warning, he clapped his hands together then placed them on the ground to send a row of spikes out of the earth at the other man from behind.

Allen was confused at first and barely managed to jump to the side, avoiding the spikes with a few nicks in one leg. Was Edward an accommodator?

"I thought you said you were an alchemist!"

He was having a little trouble wrapping his head around the idea of a scientist creating spike of earth with a clap of his hands. Ed couldn't help smirking. This looked like it was going to be rather easy, but he didn't underestimate his opponent just yet.

"Apparently you haven't seen a true alchemist at work!" he shouted back, clapping his hands again and transmuting part of his automail into a blade before charging at him.

Allen quickly activated his innocence, using the Crown Clown's claws to deflect Edward's blade as he attacked.

"Well now I have!"

It was now Ed's turn to be confused. His brain searched for a scientific explanation for what just happened, and the only one he could come up with was that Allen wasn't entirely human, which was  
>possible considering his experience with homunculi. He kept his guard up now, just in case his assumption was true.<p>

"Not bad," he commented before sending him a swift side kick while his automail arm was still blocked by Allen's mysterious arm.

Allen quickly pushed against Ed's arm with his own, knocking him back while Clown Belt acted on its own. The ribbons wrapped around Ed's lifted leg and pulled it up, causing Ed to fall to the ground while Allen put a little distance between him and the alchemist. This wasn't the end of the fight, that was obvious; they were gauging each others' abilities with their first moves.

"I take it you've never fought an exorcist before?" Allen asked, smiling slightly. He was really enjoying this. It was more fun than dueling Kanda in the training rooms.

Ed was caught by surprise by Allen's clown belt, but it didn't last for long.

"Nope, but there's a first time for everything!"

A mischievous smirk appeared on his face as he clapped his hands, and blue energy flared out from the earth. When it was gone he was standing on top of a twenty foot tall cannon.

"I'd like to see you TRY and dodge this!"

Then it fired. Allen quickly drew a cross in the air and created a shield. He couldn't see at first, the cloud of smoke generated by the explosion filling the air around him for a few seconds. As it drifted, Allen sighed with relief and looked at the huge cannon with a smirk.

"That's a pretty big cannon! Compensating for something, are we?" he called up to him.

Seeing the cloud of smoke made him rethink about the cannon, and maybe that he went a little over board, but when the smoke cleared Allen was just fine. How was that even possible? He couldn't have  
>missed...Could he? Then Allen made the mistake of making fun of his height, and rage boiled within him. He was dead, or at least close to it.<p>

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT A SNEEZE CAN BLOW THEM ACROSS THE DESERT  
>AND WHEN THEY FALL INTO A PUDDLE THEY DROWN IN A SINGLE WATER<br>MOLECULE?" He screamed at him as he jumped down from the cannon, clapped his hands together once again, and transmuted a giant stone fist at him from behind to grab Allen, and another from the front to punch him.

This startled the exorcist enough to catch him off guard as the first stony hand grabbed him from behind. He barely managed to keep his left hand free to slice the second fist in front of him. Various fragments flew past while Allen just stared at him.

"Where the hell did that come from? I didn't even say that!"

"You implied it!" Ed yelled at him, now even more pissed off since he'd still managed to destroy one of the fists.

"Well I've got news for you, Mr. Exorcist, I'm not some short microscopic shrimpy beansprout!" he said as he pointed his blade at him, then clapped his hands once more and made the fist toss him in the air roughly while another fist came out of the ground holding a giant baseball bat.

Allen's eyes widened at the sight of the bat below him.

"Shit!"

He suddenly wished Lenalee had come with him. It wasn't as easy for him to maneuver in the air as it was for her. Allen quickly extended his clownbelt, wrapping it around the stone bat that was waiting to swing. Making sure it stayed taught as he fell, he pulled hard on the tough strands so he fell at an angle and at least landed on the end of the bat.

"H-hey what happened to this being a friendly sparring match?" he yelled at the alchemist, holding onto the straps and balancing himself on the giant weapon.

"That was before you opened your mouth and called me a pipsqueak!" he shouted.

Seeing that he couldn't swing the bat at him anymore, Ed clapped his hands and made stone hands emerge from the bat to grab him and hold him still.

"Let's see you get out of that!"

"You're quite the handy man, aren't you..." Allen commented, kind of annoyed with all the stone hands. "I never called you a pipsqueak, and if you haven't noticed, we're about the same height."

Something one would fail to notice at first was that Allen's boots actually added an inch and a half to his height. So really, he and Edward were very close to the same size. Allen was starting to wonder if they were going to miss the train; they'd been fighting for a while and there was no telling the time when he couldn't move.

Ed blinked a few times, and most of his anger disappeared as quickly as it came.

"Really?"

He made the hands bring him down to the ground, but still hold him tightly in case he was just trying to trick him. He stood straight up next to him to see if he was right, and frowned when he noticed that even with his shoes and hair antenna Allen was still about an inch or two taller than him.

"Quit growing."

While Edward was distracted, Allen silently used clown belt, letting it creep along from the bottom of his cloak and wrap Ed's ankles as well as his wrists when he was sure he was distracted. They were loose enough he wouldn't notice right away, but strong enough he couldn't break them easily. Allen shrugged and smiled.

"By the way, since I'm thinking about it, how long has it been? I wouldn't wanna miss the train."

As he finished his sentence he manipulated the strands so they pulled taught, pulling Ed's arms our to  
>his sides so he couldn't clap and keeping his feet planted to the ground.<p>

"Wanna call it a tie?" He grinned.

Allen couldn't move and now Ed couldn't clap. Ed had a feeling that Allen was up to something when he asked how long it had been, but just as he was about to transmute Allen's crown belt  
>kicked in.<p>

"Hey!"

Naturally a string of curses followed as he tried to get free, but he stopped his struggling when he heard the train's whistle in the distance.

_Not fair!_ he thought.

He continued to struggle in hopes that he could get free and quickly kick his ass so he wouldn't have to settle for a draw, but once again stopped when he felt a part of his arm pop out of  
>place.<p>

_That didn't sound good either..._

Of course, to his own rotten luck his arm suddenly went limp.

"WHAT? **NO!**You can't break on me now, Winry will kill me!" he yelled, then suddenly realized something. "YOU!" he said turning back to Allen with a dark glare. "You're explaining this to Winry!"

He knew for a fact that there was a stop to Resembool, and as soon as he got free he was going to drag Allen there if that's what it took.

"Hey, you're the one who struggled. But, I will take full responsibility for your arm if you let me loose." He bowed his head to him apologetically; Allen was always a gentleman. "I really can't miss this train. So you let me go and I'll explain your arm to your mechanic. Deal?" He smiled and waited for his answer.

"Alright, fine, but you do realize I can't release you if I'm still stuck like this."

He looked back at the train to see it pulling in to the station, then he felt Allen's clown belt free him so he awkwardly clapped his hands and transmuted his arm, and all the land back to normal.

"Ok, let's go," he said as he quickly grabbed his stuff and made a mad dash for the train.

Allen nodded to him once he was free, deactivating his innocence and grabbing his stuff as they ran for the train. Rushing onto the platform, the train was already preparing to depart. Ed let out another string of curses once he saw the train was getting ready to leave with or without them. Thankfully, both he and Allen made it just in time. He sat down in an empty seat after he handed his ticket to a conductor, then glanced over at his arm and hung his head.

_Girlfriend of not__,__ she's still gonna kill me..._

_**Author's Notes**_

Something I wrote with** The-SilverWolf-Alchemist **a while ago that I finally decided to put up. Again, thanks to the wonderful **Shipudenfanatic **for betaing ^_^


End file.
